Q&A: Lieutenant General Michael D. Rochelle

Written by Diana McGonigle

SOLDIER SUPPORTER:
Educating Soldiers and Growing Leaders



Lt. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle
Deputy Chief of Staff G-1
Unites States Army

He was born on 28 March 1950, in Norfolk, Va. After graduating Central High School in Providence, R.I., he enrolled at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va., where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign language education in 1972. While enrolled and finishing his degree at Norfolk State University, he concurrently completed the Advanced ROTC program and was commissioned as a Regular Army Officer in June 1972. To augment his bachelor’s degree, Rochelle later attended Shippensburg University where he earned a Master of Arts Degree in Public Administration.

His military education includes the Army War College, Army Command and General Staff College, Field Artillery Officer Basic Course, and the Adjutant General Officer Basic and Advanced Courses.

Rochelle’s command assignments included commander of the 226th Adjutant General Company (Postal) in Munich, Germany; the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station, Portland, Maine; the Brunswick Recruiting Battalion (now the New England Recruiting Battalion), Brunswick, Maine; the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Monroe, Va.; the U.S. Army Soldier Support Institute, Fort Jackson, S.C.; and the commanding general, U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Fort Knox, KY.

Rochelle’s staff assignments included operations officer, professional development officer, and ultimately as deputy chief, General Officer Management Office, Office of the Chief of Staff Army, Headquarters Department of the Army; between commanding the Brunswick Recruiting Battalion and as the garrison commander at Fort Monroe, Rochelle served as the Division G-1 and adjutant general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); and he served as the senior military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Honorable John J. Hamre, and later as the special assistant to the deputy chief of staff for Personnel. Prior to his becoming the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Rochelle served as the director of the U.S. Army Installation Management Agency (IMA).

Rochelle’s decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster (Army), the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, Recruiter Badge, Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge, Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

Lieutenant General Rochelle was interviewed by MAE editorial coordinator, Diana McGonigle.

Q: What is the importance of education for encouraging reenlistment?

A: I’m going to start with what I believe the Army’s core competencies are and then lead into the precise answer to your question.

It’s commonly said across the Army and it’s almost like talking to ourselves, that we do primarily two things: We train soldiers, and you have to infer civilians as part of that, meaning we take a civilian and then from that individual through our processes of initial entry training and exposure to our values, we train that individual to be a competent member of the Army team, whether he or she is in uniform or in civilian clothes. They’re part of the Army team. Number one, we train soldiers and we grow leaders. Those are the two things that we have done literally since the founding of the United States Army. And we continue to do that today—a lot more sophisticated today than back in 1775. But the fundamentals are the same. Values and training, and inherent in that training is education, and the education process begins with our Army values. The core of who we are as an institution and who we are expected to be as soldiers and members of that institution—soldiers and civilians. And that’s the beginning of the education process.

It continues through military education, academic or higher levels of education, whether that’s what we used to call BSEP, Basic Skill Education Program, to help them obtain, what was in the early days to help them obtain a GED or high school equivalent, all the way up to Ph.D.s and higher levels of training for those who are capable of going on and providing that level of training for the Army and to the nation. So I think what that says is that it’s core, it’s certainly central and something that we value.

How does that translate into encouraging enlistment to service? I think very, very well. The Montgomery GI Bill, the Army College Fund and many of the incentives we have today for loan repayment for young enlisted soldiers who may have already started a higher education experience, or completed it for that matter, and have, as many do, mounted a substantial amount of debt.

And that is just one of the inducements, if it’s not too far afield from the primary purpose of your publication, it really is all about service, and at the higher level an education transfers itself into a citizen, who once he or she leaves these ranks, is able to contribute to the larger society as a consequence of that education.

Q: How could the education incentives for retention be improved, or are they fine the way they are now?

A: Well, I think we always have to look at them with a critical eye to ensure that they are relevant to the young men and women who are not only serving in our force today, but those who might service in our force. For example, we have just recently offered a menu of incentives to junior officers, where we are starting to see some challenges in retention—nothing alarmist at this point—but since I’ve watched these things now as an HR professional for 35 years, I can see we need to keep an eye on the junior officer retention. And so, we have offered for the individuals who are currently in our Army ROTC program degree completion programs across the country and who are about to be commissioned as new Army officers. The ability to extend their mandatory term of service to the Army as a trade-off for higher educational opportunities. Master’s degree-level opportunities.

That’s an innovation that was spawned as a consequence of keeping our eye on the relevancy of our current offerings, like our ability to offer fresh opportunities in education to our young junior officers. We’re asking ourselves the same questions today in terms of whether we should offer some of this—I think the answer is going to be “yes”—to our midgrade and junior noncommissioned officers as well. So it’s something we can never be complacent about, frankly because our economy is dynamic the millennial generation from which we draw now our junior officers as well as our young enlisted soldiers are dynamic in terms of what they expect to be offered. We have to keep pace with that.

Q: I suppose the incentives are not much different from those for retention; or am I mistaken?

A: They differ. They differ fairly substantially. For example the Army College Fund, which has been around a decade or more, is a fairly large—$62,000—for a young enlisted soldier who is looking to sock away some money for a higher education, in the meantime would like to serve his or her country. The offering for retention, frankly, can exceed that for an individual who is attending a degree-completion course for attaining a master’s degree, for example, in a hard science or in an area such as foreign area officer opportunities, which would include study in a foreign language as well as cultural experience in that foreign country. That could well exceed $62,000. Those rates may vary.

But one thing I’d like to add here that your readers’ might find interesting is that we really are very much in tune with constantly keeping our wet finger in the wind, if I could use that analogy, to see which way the wind is blowing. In terms of which our population that’s serving, as well as prospectively serving, are interested in. We attempt to make sure that we are tailoring our educational opportunities certainly to the needs of the Army.

There are a couple of areas that I think I’d like to highlight for the moment. I mentioned foreign area study of languages. In the current strategic environment we’re finding that if we are not fluent in the languages that are going to be strategically critical to us—many of those are Far Eastern, Asian, African—languages today that are going to be strategic for us tomorrow. That wherever the next conflict occurs not only will we be inadequate to the task in the early stages, but quite frankly, if we have young officers that are culturally aware or have developed friendships as a result of travel, can speak the language and understand the cultural nuances that might apply, we might find that we are able to forestall the next conflict. And that’s the ideal.

Q: What are your goals as deputy chief of staff?

A: My number one focus area is on the all-volunteer Army. And that perhaps is the outcome of two tours, one as a Lieutenant Colonel in Recruiting Command, recruiting in the northeastern corridor of the United States—in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire—and really coming to understand how critical it is that we sustain this precious, precious gem that we call the all-volunteer force.

I would narrow that to speak exclusively about the all-volunteer Army. On the second tour, almost four years as the commanding general of that same organization, starting shortly after September 11. And that’s where the nexus of your magazine and your readership and your focus on education. And I would like to say human development really plays a central part. So that is why I jumped at the opportunity to do this interview.

Preserving the all-volunteer force is paramount, and it is everything from assuring that our families are well-provided for especially in the current levels of strain, because our Army is stretched, there’s no mistaking that. And it’s going to be stretched even more, I suspect, in the coming years. And that’s not a statement of the current conflict; it’s a statement of the environment in which we are living today.

So it’s recruiting and sustaining that force, retaining the very best talent, ensuring that we are giving opportunities in appropriate levels of opportunities to every single member of the team, without regard to race, creed or color. It’s a pretty broad responsibility. And that doesn’t even begin to address the issues of readiness of the force, but if our force is well cared for, are well provided for, opportunities are there for those who are willing to take those opportunities, then I think that the readiness concerns pretty much solve themselves.

One other thing I would say as I look across the force, one thing is very, very, very encouraging, and that’s the spirit of the young soldier and young officer we have today. I don’t think our nation, by and large, has a true appreciation for the special young men and women who are willing to raise their right hand and serve at this point in time. Many of them are willing to forgo their educational goals, are willing to forgo for a period, for a season, their personal goals—not to focus to narrowly on education—in order to serve this great nation of ours.

One quick thing, if I may, back maybe two years ago I was visiting Huntington, W.V., and I was speaking to a very prominent Rotary Club that met on a college campus. There happened to be a young woman, 20 years old as I recall, who was a Reservist, at home from Iraq on her mid-tour rest and recuperation leave. She heard I was going to be in the area and she said “Why don’t I come and hear what the general has to say at this Rotary function?” She was there when I arrived somewhat early and I was introduced to her and I thanked her for attending, and I asked her if she would say a couple of words to the assembled members of the Rotary Club after they started to arrive. And I saw her immediately tense up. But I said you don’t have to; there’s no obligation here whatsoever. I thought they might like to hear a little of your story, why you decided to serve.

To make a long story very short, just as the event was about to officially begin, she approached me and said “Yes, I would like to say a word or two if it’s ok.” And I introduced her. I don’t need to tell you that she stole the show. Quite frankly, she could have supplanted anything I had to say to the group because her message was the one that resonated. Now it doesn’t revolve around education but here’s what she said: “The reason I am serving as a reservist—and I leave Sunday [this may have been a Thursday or a Friday]—I’m going back to Iraq. I don’t want my niece—I’m not married, I have no children—but I don’t want my young niece to ever face what we faced on September 11.”

And my whole point is, going back to appreciation for this generation of young heroes. Recently in testimony before Congress I was asked why is recruiting as challenging as it is? But the largest part is due to the messaging. Because there are heroic young men and women out there, many of whom are already serving in uniform today. Many more will serve if we get the message of service out to them.

Q: How has your education helped you in your different positions in the Army?

A: I think in innumerable, immeasurable ways. First of all, as a graduate of a very small, by most standards, historically black college in Virginia, I would consider, even though I was on an Army ROTC scholarship for that educational experience, I would consider that educational experience, although I’m proud of it, to be very meager. And I’ll leave it at that. What I quickly realized—this is targeted toward junior officers—I’ll take this opportunity to perhaps send a message to them, from my personal experience, using your question as a springboard—was that I had some areas that I needed, as a professional, whether that profession kept me in the Army for five years, 10 years, 20 years, as it has now turned out, 35 years, to sharpen. That I did not sharpen during those four years of undergraduate experience.

Those lay primarily in the area of mathematical and analytical reasoning and analysis. I seized a couple of opportunities, because I realized that I had some weak areas, to take a number of courses—quantitative analysis courses, operations research systems analysis courses—all of which helped me to think my way analytically through pretty challenging problems. I cannot tell you how well this has served me up to this very day.

Secondly, Toastmasters—not a formal education program but one that prepares you extraordinarily well for dealing with interviews like this, communicating your thoughts and feelings and also public speaking. I’ve since encouraged my own three children to take advantage of Toastmasters because I can see there clearly what it has done for me. While at the War College, as I entered the War College not having already achieved a master’s degree, I used that opportunity to attend Shippensburg University, and I came away with a War College certificate as well as a master’s degree in public administration.

And if you walk the dog back—to the quantitative analysis and the analytical decision-making—if you walk the dog back through the Toastmasters, and you think about the things I’ve mentioned that I’ve done before—recruiting, both as a battalion commander and a commanding general of recruiting—and the requirements to testify too frequently—and I say all too frequently—before Congress, I think you can see the nexus and the strength pretty clearly.

I would encourage every, every young officer, as I do with any I meet and have a little opportunity to spend a little time with, be very self-aware, not only of one’s strengths, but of one’s—I won’t use the word weaknesses—of one’s areas where there could be considerable improvement. And then seek those educational opportunities, developmental opportunities to shore them up. Had I not gone down that road of quantitative analysis and analytical decision-making in 1983, and it was a tough road because I had to go back, to go back to, as the saying goes, I had to go back to zero, and come forward through some pretty challenging and vexing courses. But it has paid innumerable and immeasurable dividends.

Q: What do your officers study when they attend graduate school?

A: It runs the gamut. Everything from operations research analysis, communications—and the list goes on and on. As much as possible what we attempt to do is to match the needs of the Army—today and tomorrow—I talk a little about the strategic environment without getting to heavily into that—with the interests of the officer. And we can frequently find that intersection with the sometimes competing axis—we can find that intersection in more cases than not. Applied mathematics, everything from nuclear engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, government—it’s a list that goes on and on. What I’d like to leave you with on that question is, we can generally find that critical intersection between the officer’s area of interest, how they see themselves contributing to either the Army or to larger society at some point in the future, and the needs of the Army.

Q: What challenges to you see in the future?

A: Oh, many. I’ll answer you this way: two mornings ago I was listening to, as I usually do, to talk radio as I’m getting ready to come to work. And I heard a quick piece on a discussion of the immigration debate that’s raging in our nation today. This was a very interesting angle on the immigration debate because the moderator was drawing a connection between if we close our borders or make it too difficult for individuals to immigrate, we probably will not be able to in the future—and I think the year he spoke about was the year 2025 or something like that—compete in a global economy in the high tech fields. I thought “What is he really saying?”

If he’s saying that of the 330 million Americans—according to the latest census—that we don’t have the capability to compete longterm in this increasingly global economy. That we don’t have the math and science leaders of the future, the inventors of the future, the statesmen of the future. And if that is his thesis, what a condemnation.

Not that I agree with it. I don’t agree with it. There’s a challenge out there. There’s a challenge when you begin to look today at where America stands competitively, across the hard sciences, math and science, disciplines in terms of our near competitors, economic and otherwise. And it’s not very flattering. But there are opportunities, and as I spoke about heroes, there are individuals out there who if given a chance—and education is often the course of opportunity or chance—can form the bedrock of a competitive America, 2025 and beyond.

But it’s going to take a concerted effort on the part of mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, let’s just say extended families, to make sure that we are getting as many of those opportunities in front of these young people as we possibly can. I’m convinced that, as it has in the past, service in the military, particularly in the Army, can be a very, very powerful way to lift those young people educationally and with a clear understanding of service beyond self to a different level.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: The only thing I would add—since you said that a large portion of your readership is comprised of young junior officers—I would simply like to add a word of thanks to them, those readers who are serving today. It’s no surprise to anyone that a small, small fraction of Americans today are wearing the uniform and carrying the burden of the global war on behalf of the nation. Whether I’m speaking to a group of soldiers in a classroom or an auditorium, or whatever forum, I try never to address them without either beginning with a word of thanks for their service or ending with a word of thanks for their service. Frequently I do it on the front end and the back end. So the only thing I wish to add, ma’am, and I appreciate the opportunity to do so, is a word of thanks to them for serving. It’s very important and I want them to know, without regard to branch of service, it is greatly appreciated. ♦

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